New York State of Mind

It is funny to think that twenty years of my life I lived only 373 miles away from New York City and never once went there.  Until this month, I had only been to NYC once and it was for about two hours where I ate dinner with a friend and gawked at Times Square with all its lights and noise and people.  As we planned our trip, I was nervous thinking about the crowds, thinking about how overwhelming it would be and wondering if we would enjoy it.  I have to tell you, I loved it!  The crowds didn’t bother me, you grow used to the noise and there is so, so much to do!

Most of our plan was to see as much as we could see.  See the things!  We were here pictures!  We walked and saw Central Park, Times Square, Wall St., Madison Ave. Our hotel had a very central Manhattan location and was .5 miles from this, .7 from that.  I think it was built in the 1920’s at the height of Jazz and flappers and so very resplendent that I kept waiting for Jay Gatsby himself to walk through the lobby and say “Hey there, old sport.”  The room we stayed in was pretty small and nondescript other than amazing water pressure in the shower, but that lobby had it going on!

The two things that we saw that amazed me the most had to be the Statue of Liberty and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  We took the subway to Battery Park and did not sign up for any guided tour of the Statue.  It was super- hot and I did not need to be part of the teeming masses trying to get in.  We could see her from shore!  I was moved, moved, to see her in person.  My grandfather came through Ellis Island from Sicily as a four-year-old and I kept picturing him seeing her and knowing he was almost to his new home.  Then I thought, no, he was four, so instead I pictured my great-grandmother probably dressed in a black shroudy thing and having spent the last few months down in steerage.  What a relief it must have been to for her to see that Statue and know they were almost there. America in the 1920’s was awash with immigrants from Southern Europe trying to find a better life and as a result was saying things like “Hey, no more swarthy immigrants!” (sound familiar?)  But not that statue.  She was saying welcome, we will have you, you are safe now.  And that she is still standing and still offering that hope to immigrants, well, I cried. And then we boarded the FREE Staten Island ferry that provided up close views and a very needed breeze and thought nothing could top this.  But, this is NYC, topping things it was it does best!

really need to figure out this sideways thing, but still beautiful!

The day we went to the Met, the boys opted out and just Sophie and I went. We walked two miles to get there and my girl powered ahead, she was so excited to see all the art. The Met was huge so we tried to plan what we could actually see and what we would be okay skipping. You go in and are awed by the sweet air conditioning and start looking at paintings and thinking, okay.  And then you get closer and see, Botticelli.  Alright.  Monet.  Renoir.  Van Gogh.  Well, we didn’t actually see Van Gogh, but he is there.  When Sophie mentioned we missed Van Gogh, I showed her a Van Gogh magnet in the museum store; she was not amused.  I have to tell you though it was Emanuel Leutze’s “Washington Crossing the Delaware” that made me take a step back and a breath in.  It is giant and takes up an entire wall and every single detail so expertly painted, you can feel how cold it was, how determined the men were.  I was rendered speechless and we know how rare a thing that is.

I did leave NYC convinced of a few things I think I should share with you and a few questions I still have that I am hoping a native NYCer can answer for me. 

1.      People in NYC must die at least 7 times a day.  They have no fear of moving vehicles and possess a complete disregard for what the crosswalk light tells them to do.

2.     Blocking the box is not only common, it is highly encouraged in order to move your car two inches forward and make the light ten lights from now.  Also, when someone cuts you off in traffic, the rule is lay on your horn for a solid ten seconds while pumping your brakes and inching up as close as you can to the offender.

3.     People in NYC are really nice.  Except for the man working in the subway station and to be fair, he works underground in a glass box and we did interrupt his private tete a tete with a woman subway worker to buy tickets.  Everyone keeps to themselves but is pretty friendly.  Especially when your son is making weird enough cooing noises to pigeons that these native NYers will look you in the eye and smile and think both you and your son are kind of weird.

4.     People in NYC have grown so accustomed to the people and noise around them that they no longer think anything of screaming all their conversations into their phones as they walk.  We overheard a very lively conversation in Little Italy and another in Central Park as a man was sexting, over Siri.  “Siri, I have no shirt on.”  He actually did have a shirt on and I will admit to slowing down to see where the rest of that text was going.

5.     People in NYC must be constantly dehydrated or wear Depends because bottles of water cost $4 each and there is nowhere to use a bathroom.  There are no public restrooms!  Where are the restrooms?!?  Even eating in a restaurant doesn’t guarantee they have a restroom you can use. 

6.     It is easy to be a vegetarian in NYC; Sophie had great eating choices the entire time.  Halal food and a vegan tent popped up right as Bill said “Well, it’s not like a vegetarian place is just going to pop up”. 

7.     Where do people in NYC buy gas?  I would never in a million years want to drive there, but people do and I never once saw a gas station.

8.     Does anyone grocery shop in NYC?  Is it all Instacart?  Can Instacart even deliver?  Those people should definitely be tipped heavily if there are fighting that traffic and running upstairs with your toilet paper.

I am so glad that we made this trip and so amazed by all the things we were able to see, but I definitely need to go back.  I want to see Central Park aflame in autumn splendor or in December when the city is dressed up for Christmas.  I want to see a Broadway show.  I want to eat in Little Italy.  There’s just so much more to see and do here!    I learned a lot about NYC on this trip and can’t wait to come back and experience more.  I know to purposefully dehydrate myself all day long, I know to walk when everyone else is walking and I definitely know we should fly there and back.